“Britain is an island nation. We can control our borders. But it will only happen if we have a government with the determination to act.”

Thus UK Conservative leader Michael Howard, who today announced his Party's support for creating a “border police force” to help fight against illegal immigration. The proposal’s novelty may be lost on American readers: the UK has never had a police force exclusively devoted to protecting its frontiers.

Howard’s border police scheme is just the latest installment in the Tory campaign to capitalize on voter discontent over immigration and asylum issues in the run-up to the May 5th general election. The Party has fielded a number of proposals in this area since January, including quotas on the number of asylum seekers, an Australian-style points system in awarding work permits, and mandatory physical examinations (including HIV and TB testing) for would-be immigrants.

To all appearances, the strategy has been a spectacular success. When the Tories first came out in favor of immigration reform in late January, they were trailing Labour by more than 10 points. Early last week, that gap had closed to one. And little surprise: though immigration is the only issue on which the Tories consistently out-perform Labour in public opinion polls, it also regularly scores at or near the top of rankings of matters of public importance (polling enthusiasts: please consult the invaluable UK Polling Report for all relevant links) .

Indeed, so great was the Conservative momentum that even the Guardian began to have doubts.

And then came the Howard Flight fiasco. In comments leaked to the press from a closed meeting, Flight, a prominent Tory MP, admitted that, in the event of a Conservative victory, cuts to public spending would be considerably greater than those cited by Howard. Flight was immediately sacked for his indiscretion, and a nasty row ensued. The dust has yet to settle.

The appearance of double-dealing has not helped the Conservatives. According to the most recent poll, they are once again well behind Labour (-12 points). It is in this context that one must set Howard’s recent “border police” proposal. Time will tell whether it revives Conservative prospects. Either way, the Conservative Party’s remarkable surge from what seemed perennial electoral oblivion makes it clear that, in Britain, immigration is an issue that is very much in play.

As British blogger Peter Cuthbertson recently put it, "Those who will say that the Tory salvation will come when the Conservatives are just a cosmopolitan liberal party that sometimes calls for tax cuts will now have the pollsters to contend with." Indeed.

The British public may not be in love with the Conservatives; they are even less enamored of Tony Blair’s laissez-faire attitude to immigration and asylum. There’s a lesson to be had here in Washington. If only someone would take it.